Aaron's Worldwide Adventures
Ah, Tibet. Full of mystique and intrigue, Tibet holds a special place in the minds of many travelers. The ancient rituals and traditions. Potala Palace. Everest Base Camp. What’s not to like? Sadly, actually seeing Tibet first hand can be an exercise in frustration. Given its rather tumultuous history under Chinese rule, the government doesn’t […]
You know what a monopoly is, right? No, I don’t mean the board game! I mean a monopoly in the business world. I can’t say that I spend that much time thinking about monopolies (say for the various news blurbs that dart around about how various tech companies are being investigated for this exact purpose). […]
The lights flash. The music starts. The camera angle dramatically changes. This is the TV show “Fear Factor,” here in Lijiang, China witn their latest gross eating stunt. After all, why else would anyone give a restaurant this name? (And no, nobody was actually filming an episode of “Fear Factor”…but “Fear Factor…” “Rice Noodle Factor…” […]
China is a big country. And that big country has two very big cell phone carriers. They have offices just about everywhere so I’m sure everyone can learn their names and distinctive logos: Photo Credit: Wikipedia Photo Credit: Berllin Heck, even their names are always written in both English and Chinese. This just isn’t a […]
Behold, the striking beauty that is the tourist hot spot of Lijiang, one of China’s UNESCO World Heritage for its stunningly preserved old town, pictured above. But with many a tourist comes many a store. And of course, almost all of those stores sell the same products, so, like any tourist destination, competition for names […]
China does nothing on a small scale. Between the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 2010 Shanghai World Expo, you may have picked up on this. But their fascination with doing things big time stretches throughout the country, leading to some hefty decor for the UNESCO World Heritage Sites! You’re probably thinking, “But I thought World Heritage […]
Did you know that Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, is famous for its jade? I didn’t, that is, until I encountered all these stores selling Burmese Jade in the not-so-mythical land of Shangri-La in China. And as such is the trend when you have a bunch of stores selling the same product, naming becomes a […]
When you arrive in Shangri-La, you’ll notice one thing. You have to do a lot of walking! Much like some other historic “old towns” in China’s Yunnan province (like Lijiang or Dali), Shangri-La’s “old town” is free of vehicular traffic, leaving the cobblestone streets looking quite picturesque! And if the streets aren’t enough, you could […]